100

A masterpiece that can keep you entertained for a VERY long time

Like Oblivion before it Skyrim is an everlasting gameplay experience that will always give you something to do and a place to go, its dynamic quest system is really smart and the story is good enough to give you a reason to play and get involved in the world around you.

You have so much freedom in how you build your character, that while you can spend months playing just your first character you could then do it 10 times over again with a new character based on a different build. Say go archer, then meele, then spell caster, then summoner.

Nothing has you locked down in this game and your free to experience it the way you want and for that I think this game rates at the top of its kind.

This genre is not for everybody, but for those that it is it will become one of your most favorite games. The cost to time ratio just destroys pretty much any other game you can get making it a very worth while investment.

Lets not forget the huge community backing so you can expect so much player created content, mods and fixes to make it even better.

85

A good mindless action shooter clone of the Gears of War series.

You get a super powerful hero that can cut through masses of enemies and blast them away to the next world from afar.

I felt the challenge was present, learning to manage your hits and abilities and use cover wisely made the difference between easily clearing a room or dying multiple times in anger.

Graphics are top notch for the game and sounds and soundtrack as well as voice acting were all also above average.

I say its weak points were that I saw no option to rebind my keyboard controls and mouse controls and this really irritated me since the default setup didnt make much sense giving you multiple keys that have the same function easy to reach but then a few of the needed keys out of reach. So your left with duplicates that serve no purpose and messing up your wsad orientation to hit that one important key to save your life.

Also there is not a lot of weapon variety in the game. But the game fills its role pretty proper and gives you something fun to play for a while.

It does offer a multiplayer mode to keep you in the game after single player is beaten, and its a pretty active community from what I can tell.

All in all while it was not the game of the year I dont feel that I wasted any money on this one and am glad its part of my game collection.

50

Only play with friends

The zombie game trend continues and Dead Island feels rushed to the market I think to take advantage of the recent trending in this genre.

It had some interesting concepts but never was the game balanced out properly nor the bugs ironed out. The final product feels very unpolished and like it should still be a beta state.

The characters are in no way balanced, some are much better than others and this means you end up with clone characters or if your do what we did and have a group of friends play and agree to each use a different character. Somebody gets the short end of the stick and does not add much help to the team.

The constant upkeep of weapons is much more a chore than a realism, it makes it hard for you to use that good weapon you like because after 10 zombies get bashed in with it, its broken and your forced to use something else.

The inventory system is about the worst I have ever seen making it hard to know whats an upgrade and what is worse and you cant easily swap equipped items.

If the game has any good points its that the world is pretty nice and graphics are not half bad. The gameplay though just does not cut it, the further you get into the game the worse the balance and progression get and the more stale everything becomes.

It is worth $20 to mess around with if you have some friends but it is never going to be worth the release price of $50 no matter how much you like this genre.